Designing for Disability

A refreshable Braille display attached to a laptop computer, being used by a blind person.
Photo credit: Sebastien.delorme, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I recently watched several Ted Talks from the Designing for Disability playlist. Although I have had and still have many people in my life with disabilities ranging from visual or auditory impairments to ALS and autism, these videos reminded me anew of the extent to which people with disabilities can experience the world differently from those without them.

These differences include online experiences like accessing social media, reading blogs or watching video, as well as using digital apps or filling out forms. For example, content like this blog entry can present challenges to the visually impaired unless steps are taken to make the material compatible with readers who have low vision or who use a screen reader to convert visual content to an auditory or tactile format.

Similarly, a hearing-impaired person watching a video will benefit from the addition of captioning. And people with cognitive, neurological or processing disabilities like dyslexia, autism, or ADHD may find certain styles of presentation overwhelming or confusing and others much easier to deal with. (Web Accessibility Initiative) Users with motor issues may face barriers related to using a mouse or touchpad to interact with content or on-screen controls. (WebAIM)

Web Accessibility Perspectives: Clear Layout and Design – W3C Web Accessibility Initiative

Designing with all of these factors in mind can be a challenge, but it’s necessary in order to create an inclusive environment for audiences of varying ability. Even something as simple as adding alt text or a caption to an image so screen reading technology can render a description is a step in the right direction. Likewise, choosing a simple design with a sans-serif font in black on a white or light background and limiting the intrusion of unnecessary decorative elements can help those with low vision or processing challenges to read what’s on the screen.

Taken together, these guidelines can help with designing a more inclusive and accessible website for users who might otherwise face barriers to its use.

Works Cited:

Introduction to Web Accessibility. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (2016, May 18). Web Accessibility Perspectives: Clear Layout and Design [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfkzj5VC9P8

WebAIM: Introduction to Web Accessibility. (2020, April 14). https://webaim.org/intro/

What is Information Design?

^{Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com}

We are bombarded by data in every waking hour. Everything our senses convey to us is data of some sort. Because human beings are primarily visual creatures, we pay perhaps the most attention to visual stimuli. As visual beings, we also use images as a tool for making sense of the data we collect, even when that data may not be inherently visual. To put it simply, humans tend to think in pictures. Charts, graphs, maps, and even cave art represent the human urge to share information using visual means.

Information design, at its core, is the process of distilling and organizing data so that it may be presented coherently and in a way that renders it accessible to a target audience using visual imagery. Data is the raw input; information is what we get when we sift through that data to find the important elements and then organize them into a form that tells us what we need to know. Information design, then, involves deciding on the best way to share that information with others.

Dan Roam’s Digital Roam website offers several examples of visual imagery designed to tell a story to a target audience. One of these, 10 Steps To Becoming A Customer-Centric Enterprise, appears to be a slide from a larger presentation of that name. This slide gives a clear visualization of different ways a company might conduct business with its clients. In the first and largest set of illustrations we are shown two people inside a cube, peering out of it presumably on the search for customers or collaborators. Interestingly, the area around them is blank; no one is in sight. This image bears the title “Inside-Out”. To the right of this image appears another titled “Outside-In”. In it, the same cube is shown with no one inside, but it is surrounded by people approaching it. This pair of illustrations is given the number 1, indicating it is probably the first of the ten steps in the title. A pair of smaller boxes below, labeled 2, again presents two illustrations per box, contrasting labeled ways of doing business.

The illustrations are simplistic, rendered in shades of blue and white, with simplistic drawings that bring to mind the sort of sketches that appear on whiteboards during brainstorming sessions. The design features minimal text but lets the images tell the story effectively. On the whole, it conveys the information well which makes it a perfect example of the power of information design.

Works cited:

Coates, Kathryn and Ellison, Andy. An Introduction to Information Design. Laurence King Publishing, 2014.

Roam, Dan. “10 Steps To Becoming A Customer-Centric Enterprise.” Showcase, Digital Roam Inc., https://www.danroam.com/showcase